Hong Kong protests: Representative symbols and songs(By Jenny Tsang)

Hong Kong protests: Representative symbols and songs

‘Occupy Central’ has been started for half month. The intention of this revolution is to fight for democracy and to get universal suffrage(普選權)in the chief executive election. This is definitely a hot issue in Hong Kong and many overseas Chinese take the initiative to organize assemblies to support the movement of Hong Kong.

Yellow ribbons, umbrellas, songs like Under a vast sky(海闊天空)by Beyond and Do you hear the people sing from Les Misérables have become main symbols and songs in the movement.

Umbrellas are usually used to protect against sunshine, rain and tear gas, which gradually become a symbol of protests. 

Yellow ribbons represent citizens' support to 'Occupy Central'.

In view of this, many international broadsheets have reported about this. Here is an example of news report related to this issue: 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29473974

Below are some bilingual elements of the news report from BBC News:

1.     Transliteration (音譯)

-      Transliteration of names in Chinese, such as Joshua Wong(黃), Mike Cheung(張), Kacey Wong(黃)

-      Xinhua (新華網)

-      Beijing is a pinyin of the Chinese term北京

2.     Translation

-      Lufsig, its Chinese name is路姆西

-      The song ‘Under a vast sky’ by Beyond  means 海闊天空, which is released in 1993.

3.      Adaptation(改編)

-      IKEA toy wolf (Lufsig) becomes Hong Kong protest symbol, the toy was originally designed by a Germen designer for supporting children education. But later its meaning is altered by Hong Kong citizens and it is used to describe our Chief Executive CY Leung which represents his untrustworthy and cunning character. It is also a sign for opposing the government.

Therefore, it can be seen that there is an adaptation of the meaning of the wolf from supporting children education to expressing citizens’ dissatisfaction to the government.

4.    BBC News as a public media in societal and impersonal bilingualism

BBC is a public media that aims to inform, educate and entertain their citizens or viewers by broadcasting influential and meaningful programmes. There are interactions among citizens in the nation or society or even between countries. Cultural, political, knowledge exchange is no longer confined to the time zone and border.